Slate Creek Trail Camp
Camp Review:
I took the girls backpacking to Slate Creek Trail Camp via the Summit Trail and Slate Creek Trail. My original plan was to take the Slate Creek Trail the whole way, but due to a fallen tree, the first part of the trail was closed.
Both the Summit Trail and Slate Creek Trail were well maintained trails. If I had to choose one word to describe both trails, it’d be “green”. The Summit Trail pretty much just gained elevation (though at a gentle slope), while Slate Creek Trail was a pretty flat, but not boring trail.
There were plenty of insects and snails along the trails.
There was no trash on the trail.
There was no reception on the trail on Verizon.
At the camp, site 1 was the smallest, and quietest site. The other sites were larger, but much closer together.
What I Learned:
My girls had never backpacked 6 miles round trip before. I think the furthest they’ve ever backpacked was at Henry Coe last year—and that was only a mile from the parking lot to the campsite. What a difference one year makes! They were absolutely fantastic on this hike and did not have any issues with the packs they carried.
It took about 35 minutes to get up, get dressed, and to pack up everything (without cooking breakfast).
We brought pastries from Paris Baguette for breakfast and they were delicious and easy!
During the hike up to camp, we passed by fellow backpackers who warned us that there were lots of mosquitos at camp. However, we arrived at camp, we ran into zero mosquitos due to the high winds.
3 miles, 1 hr 59 mins, 1132 ft of ascent
2.9 miles, 1 hr 26 mins, 499 ft of ascent
What Happened?
For the first backpacking trip of the year, my eldest requested a site that was heavily forested and with a bathroom. What I found was Slate Creek Trail Camp at Portola Redwoods.
The girls found the roads to Portola Redwoods a little twisty, but not long enough to brew a car sickness. We first checked out the cozy visitor center and got checked in. We were told to park the car behind the visitor center and was lucky to find a single spot that could fit my large car. We then put our packs on and started the hike!
The first half mile or so was on this access road that was fully paved. The girls were really hoping for non-paved road so that their walking sticks would feel amazing when they pushed it down to the ground. And when the Summit Trail entered our sights, they sprinted towards it, and this is where our hike really started.
Of course, they just wanted to go as fast as they could now that they were enjoying the hike, but I cautioned for a slow and steady pace as I knew that if we rushed this uphill portion, they would be dead tired (maybe) way before the camp site. At first, they got pretty warm, so they took off their sweaters and we kept up our pace. At the top of the Summit Trail, the winds picked up, and the elevation gain slowed down tot he point where they were cold and needed the sweaters again. Although the trail was beautiful, at a certain point, the hike got a bit repetitive, and so they asked me to tell them a fictional story. So I spun a random origin story about Smokey the bear and how he gained notoriety by eating terrible campers and putting out their fire. But before I could finish the story, the camp came into view.
We immediately saw site one (out of six),—although it was a small site, and the bench wasn’t totally flat, the site for the tent was flat, and it was perched away from the other campsites, which meant that it would be a quiet site. Still, we hiked on and saw that all other sites except site four were taken. We were thinking about taking site four, but judging by the cacophony of voices coming from site six, we correctly guessed that we would not find peace at site four. So we hiked backed to site one and set up camp.
The youngest helped me set up the tent, while my eldest worked on her junior ranger workbook that we picked up at the visitor center. Once the tent, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags were setup, they immediately went into the tent and warmed up in their sleeping bags while I started on dinner.
When the water was boiled, the girl enjoyed handling the food while I took pictures and cleaned up the stove system. We then had dinner (Mountain House Yellow Curry for the girls and ReadyWise Chili Mac for me); we found the curry to be delicious and the chili mac was found wanting.
After dinner, while the girls finished their workbooks and played Uno, I hiked down to the creek to refill our water bottles. While hiking, I was really happy we picked site number one, as the folks in site six were having a great time, but I definitely would have been annoyed when going to sleep before 10pm. After a quarter mile, I found the creek along the Slate Creek Trail and was surprised that the water was crystal clear.
When I got back to the tent, the eldest and I played a few games of Uno, and then at 8pm, all three of us settled into our reading routine. And at 9pm, we all turned off our lights and went to sleep.
We woke up at 6:43am, packed up everything as fast as we could, and hiked out of there. On the trail, we saw three banana slugs (one which was a baby), and numerous insects. I also ran into numerous spider webs that somehow always missed my kids. We got back to the parking lot at 8:50 and waited for the ranger to open the visitor center (so that the kids could turn in the junior ranger activity book for prizes). Unfortunately, the person who was supposed to open the store never showed up, but another park employee did end up giving the kids a few stickers and a pencil. We then left in a hurry to see our climbing friends at the near by Indian Rock.